If there’s one thing I love more than a metaphor, it’s an extended metaphor.

So if that’s the case, then in my mind this book really is the literary equivalent of a celebratory Passing Out Parade.

Apart from coincidentally having the same name as my brother-in-law, author Neil Sinclair has been a Royal Engineering Commando and is now a qualified childminder and full-time dad to three of his own young troopers.

Neil started his book journey with the Commando Dad blog, and I happened to see Neil speaking about this at Mumsnet BlogFest last year. He was eloquent, knowledgeable and bloody funny!

Unfortunately, the book title isn’t a reference to Neil Sinclair’s current underwear status (but come to think of it, it’s probably quite relevant to my brother-in-law in that context – I’ll have to ask his Mrs!) It’s called ‘Commando Dad: Basic Training – How to be an Elite Dad or Carer’ because it covers the basics of becoming a dad for the first time and continues across the first 3 years of your little soldier’s life.

It’s aim is to teach new dad, in no nonsense terms, how to:

Prepare base camp

Survive the first 24 hours of your mission

Pack your kitbag

Maintain morale in the ranks

Prepare nutritious food for the unit

Deal with minor combat injuries and hostilities

When couples announce their pregnancy, it’s usually the mother-to-be who gets showered with presents, and often the dad-to-be misses out. I think ‘Commando Dad’ would be the perfect gift for those undoubtedly terrified, left out dads – particularly those with a sense of humour.

As a mum of two, I found this book to be full of very practical, helpful tips and extremely readable – the advice is presented in very well-organised bite-sized sections with logical headings and easily-scanable bullet points. The ‘military’ metaphor makes it fun to read and, although written specifically for dads, I think it would be useful to both genders.

With an RRP of only £9.99, and a percentage of royalties going to the ‘National Memorial Arboretum’ and ‘Acorns’ charities, I would call this the perfect present for a new dad.